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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Isle foreclosures among lowest in U.S., despite December surge

By Greg Wiles
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser
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Foreclosure filings in Hawai'i tripled in December compared to a year earlier, though the rate for the entire year remained one of the lowest nationwide.

There were 130 foreclosure filings last month in the state, a 202 percent increase compared to December 2006, according to Realty Trac, a California-based real estate research firm.

The firm also released national figures showing that more than 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year. Declining property values in some markets, along with higher interest rates on adjustable mortgages, have led to an increase in foreclosures nationally. Some consumers can't keep up with mortgage payments and can't refinance or sell their properties.

Hawai'i consumers and lenders have typically been more conservative in their financing and the foreclosure rate here was less than one-fifth of the national rate. Hawai'i's low unemployment rate also has contributed to the stability.

In Hawai'i, less than 0.2 percent of households were in some stage of foreclosure last year. That ranked the state as having the seventh-lowest foreclosure rate nationally and translated into 966 properties with some sort of filing.

The highest rate was in Nevada, where about 3.4 percent of households went into some stage of foreclosure during the year. South Dakota had the lowest rate at 0.007 percent.

While not a big problem locally, there have been more foreclosures in recent months as Hawai'i's economic growth slows. Still, there were only 130 foreclosure filings in December compared to the 300 to 400 a month in Hawai'i during the mid-1990s housing slump.

For its report, RealtyTrac counts a range of document filings in the foreclosure process, from default notices to auction notices and bank repossessions.

Because of the methodology, the data may include more than one foreclosure filing on the same property and the data can't be used as a precise measure of homes lost to foreclosure.

Nonjudicial foreclosure notices that aren't recorded publicly, and situations in which homeowners in mortgage default are working with lenders in hopes of avoiding foreclosure action aren't included in the data.

Advertiser staff writer Andrew Gomes contributed to this report.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.